On a team of high-definition personalities, Luol Deng is a man who works, a masterwork of Socialist Realism. Watch him and you see this acutely: real people doing things at tremendous physical cost, a theater of humble punishment. He's a star, and he's a laborer.

On Saturday afternoon, Philip Humber won his 12th game as a Major Leaguer by throwing the 21st perfect game in baseball history. It was strange and beautiful and incredibly, hilariously random—and, actually, very nearly as perfect as "perfect game" suggests.

The basketball that happens in Dayton before the NCAA Tournament officially begins is no longer called the play-in game. But, in a fundamental and ineffable and not at all fun-to-watch way, it is still very much that. And also more than that.

This week, non-mega-conferences Conference USA and the Mountain West announced a strategic partnership that they hope will help them survive college sports' zombie-afflicted nuclear afterfuture. Here are some suggestions on surviving that afterfuture.